Nvidia's Jensen Huang Says China Leads In Open-Source AI

Nvidia NVDA CEO Jensen Huang, on his third visit to China this year, praised the country’s open-source AI innovation during a fireside chat with Alibaba Group BABA Cloud founder Wang Jian at the China International Supply Chain Expo on Thursday.

He called open source “extremely powerful,” crediting China’s ecosystem with producing “the best open reasoning models in the world today,” highlighting DeepSeek, Alibaba’s Qwen, and Moonshot’s Kimi as “very advanced,” SCMP reported on Thursday.

Huang said China’s collaborative engineering culture impacted open-source development, enabling industries like fintech, healthcare, and robotics to benefit globally. He emphasized that open-source models help China’s AI progress and support global innovation.

Also Read: Nvidia Outpaces Market With AI-Powered Growth, Nears Record Highs

The visit comes just days after Nvidia announced that Washington had approved export license filings for its H20 GPUs, custom-built for the Chinese market to comply with U.S. export controls.

Despite the approval, Huang noted that Chinese firms haven’t been able to place H20 orders yet because U.S. agencies are still processing the final paperwork.

However, he said the U.S. government had “assured” Nvidia that licenses would be granted. Huang added that Nvidia is “working at full speed” to restore production of Hopper-based products like the H20, but cautioned that supply chain recovery takes time, around nine months from wafer order to final delivery.

Analysts say that the return of H20 availability would “ease the anxiety” of Chinese companies developing large language models and could increase the market share of foreign chip suppliers in China.

While the H20 is less potent than Nvidia’s flagship H100, it remains the most viable option for Chinese firms after recent U.S. restrictions and has seen strong demand. Huang’s remarks further reinforced Nvidia’s commitment to supporting AI development in China despite geopolitical challenges.

Needham analyst N. Quinn Bolton expects the U.S. move to lift export curbs on Nvidia’s H20 chips to boost the company’s China sales significantly. In response, he raised his price forecast on Nvidia from $160 to $200 and projected $3 billion in H20 shipments per quarter. He also estimates a gross margin of nearly 100% on the previously written-down H20 inventory.

Bolton increased his revenue and EPS forecasts across the board: fiscal third-quarter and fourth-quarter 2026 revenue up by $4 billion each, fiscal 2026 revenue to $202.6 billion (EPS: $4.42 from $4.17), fiscal 2027 revenue to $265.0 billion (EPS: $6.20 from $5.80), and introduced a fiscal 2028 forecast of $315.0 billion in revenue and $7.25 EPS, including $20 billion from China data center GPU sales.

He believes Nvidia remains well-positioned to recover lost ground and grow in China due to strong demand and quick product adaptation.

Nvidia stock gained 28% year-to-date, topping the Nasdaq Composite’s over 7% gains.

NVDA Price Action: NVDA stock is trading higher by 0.76% to $172.68  at last check Wednesday.

Read Next:

• Cisco Is Quietly Beating The AI Hype—Should Investors Pay Closer Attention?

Image via Shutterstock